New Game Of Death (aka Goodbye Bruce Lee, His Last Game of Death) (1975)

[Brigadier Chow]

We owe this all to the "Celestial Strategy". ????

[Guest Jesse Smooth]

It's a shame that companies think that people can't get over anything "Bruce Related". While Deadly Angels wont get released>: Crap like this is.

Does Celestial think that this will sell because it's a "Bruce" movie? Remember, when it comes to kung fu, Average Joe only knows Bruce Lee.

So many good movies that may never get released and they go for the bottom of the barrel.

[Guest venomchamber]

He must have got Deadly Strike confused with The Last Strike which is an aka for Soul Brothers.

*Exactly! I was half asleep after a hard day's work while ranting and raving...like I need to read this b.s. news about "Celestial's strategy" when I come home and log on.

Simply unbelievable.

...and yet they post a short film about the Shaw's remastering process on their site, a couple years too late.

Maybe they're saving a few new titles to draw us back when they start re-releasing these things with variant covers or whatever.

Maybe they'll release Angels and Mastermind on PSP or some other new format at a later date as part of their marketing strategy? Who the heck knows.

BTW...thanks Chinatown Kid!

[Guest Markgway]

Anyone know who Kuslai and Sandus are?

Oh, and what are the differences between the Chinese and English cuts of the film?

NEW GAME seems to be about 10 mins longer than GOODBYE BRUCE LEE (but I've never seen the dub).

[Killer Meteor]

Anyone know who Kuslai and Sandus are?

Oh, and what are the differences between the Chinese and English cuts of the film?

NEW GAME seems to be about 10 mins longer than GOODBYE BRUCE LEE (but I've never seen the dub).

No idea at all about those two. Could they be the actresses?

The English version replaces the frequent cues of BArry White's Love's Theme with the song Gooodbye Bruce Lee: His Last Game Of Death. The opening credits on the Chinese version begin with "Bruce" running on a race track, whilst the English version plays over a montage of Bruce Lee posters, stills and newspaper articles

All those scenes with the crime bosse's daughter were removed from the English version, including the charming lesbian subtext stuff!

[Chinatown Kid]

The Anchor Bay version I have of Goodbye Bruce Lee, His Last Game of Death has that "He's the King of Kung Fu, the man they call Bruce Lee" song by Candy playing off and on throughout the whole flick. The fight scenes are aweful.

[Guest Markgway]

No idea at all about those two. Could they be the actresses?

The two main actresses are Meng Ping ("Yueh Ping") and Wang Ching Ping ("Bruce Li's girlfriend") - I was thinking maybe the western fighters? The black boxer and the white wrestler dudes? There's no other suitable credit for them.

[Lo Lieh]

It's a shame that companies think that people can't get over anything "Bruce Related". While Deadly Angels wont get released>: Crap like this is.

Does Celestial think that this will sell because it's a "Bruce" movie? Remember, when it comes to kung fu, Average Joe only knows Bruce Lee.

So many good movies that may never get released and they go for the bottom of the barrel.

Ya, I remember when this was released last year how odd it was compared to the rest of there catalog. I did some research on it when I first seen it was coming out because I enjoy the odd bruceploitation flick every now and then but this one seems that it is below average when it comes to even these movies. Pretty lame for celestial.

[kungfusamurai]

This may be a silly question, but I only just thought of it. The film we know as Game of Death was released in '78 by Golden Harvest and featured footage of Bruce Lee from the film of the same name.

What was the status of this film circa 1975 when Bruce Li AKA Ho Chung Tao acted in the film known as New Game of Death or Goodbye Bruce Lee? Was the general public already familiar with Bruce Lee's unfinished film? The use of Bruce Lee in the yellow jump suit with the black stripe became and iconic image in Bruceploitation films before the Golden Harvest Game of Death came out, as far as I can tell, so does this mean people were already in tune with that look for Bruce well before GoD got released?

Sorry for the weird question. I just figured that if the film industry was exploiting his image, they'd do it based on films that had already been released (like Chinese Connection) rather than use something obscure that hadn't been released to the public, like GoD

KFS

[Chinatown Kid]

I think there were lots of photos released of Bruce in that GOD tracksuit before the actual movie was shown so people kind of had an idea about the GOD "look".

[falkor]

It's interesting to try and gain some insight into what is must have been like for Bruce fans in the 1970s. By the same token, I've also wondered what other bashers Bruce has watched during his lifetime, and whether he had enough viewing experience to criticise other productions. I'm pretty sure he wouldn't have seen many HK swordplay films like Sorrowful To A Ghost or Matchless Conqueror. Finally, I don't get it how first generation Bruce fans have such a bad memory when it comes to seeing the Big Boss in the theatres. My friend saw Hell's Wind Staff about 5 times in the cinema when released, as this was a classic of it's day; he would soon know if there were any scenes missing in the VHS version. It's been 11 years since I watched some reels shown by FLK, and it only seems like yesterday. Shame I was born in the 80s, otherwise I could have told you all about Big Boss.

[Guest Markgway]

The yellow tracksuit was well publicised after Lee's death and the makers of New Game of Death clearly had a strong idea of what Lee's original storyline had been. It's a crap film but closer than any to how the if-completed GOD would've played out.

[greenbamboo]

Has anyone seen the interview with Kareem that was shown in the original release? Is that version available anywhere? thanks.

[greenbamboo]

Did you know that there was an original trailer release for Game of Death that played at the end of Way of the Dragon in the first US cinema showings. Extremely rare but I know who has a copy.

[thehangman]

Thats sounds intrestin,have you seen the trailer?

[greenbamboo]

No but George Tan owns a copy. Kareem interview?

[The Dragon]

Is there any information on this trailer? How could they have released a trailer and the film was incomplete, and Bruce Dead almost a year? WOTD was released in the US in 1974.

[shukocarl]

The trailer was probably from 'Bruce Lee the Man and Legend' that had clips from Lee's 'Game of Death' in it. The documentary played in HK quite soon after Lee's death on a double bill with Enter the Dragon. It was hastily put together by Raymond Chow and lay in the archives for decades until being released on video/dvd.

[Killer Meteor]

It's interesting to try and gain some insight into what is must have been like for Bruce fans in the 1970s. By the same token, I've also wondered what other bashers Bruce has watched during his lifetime, and whether he had enough viewing experience to criticise other productions. I'm pretty sure he wouldn't have seen many HK swordplay films like Sorrowful To A Ghost or Matchless Conqueror. Finally, I don't get it how first generation Bruce fans have such a bad memory when it comes to seeing the Big Boss in the theatres. My friend saw Hell's Wind Staff about 5 times in the cinema when released, as this was a classic of it's day; he would soon know if there were any scenes missing in the VHS version. It's been 11 years since I watched some reels shown by FLK, and it only seems like yesterday. Shame I was born in the 80s, otherwise I could have told you all about Big Boss.

I think it was especially Golden Harvest output Bruce criticised - and even, i think it was the fighting he was bothered about

[Squid Lips]

I actually saw The New Game Of Death in San Francisco at a theater called The St. Francis when it came out. The week prior, they had the trailer for the film (which I used to own on 16mm) and showed a quick clip of Kareem being interviewed, but no sound. The narration was by the oscar nominated Adolph Caesar and he sold me to come back the next week.

Most of the Lee trademarks (tracksuit, fights in a tower, etc.) were all available through magazines, books, etc. By the time I saw the Lee version (for lack of a better term) in theaters (I still own the newspaper review write up) I was already prepared for everything to come so most of the producers of these films prior to the release in 1978 knew it too. They were able to lure a lot of people in thinking they were actually going to get a glimpse of Lee in his final film.

[The Dragon]

I seem to remember several advertisings of "Asia's #1 Movie, Star, Box Office..." etc. Though now it seems those films played everywhere but HK.

Lol.

[Guest Markgway]

The New Game of Death did play in Hong Kong but it wasn't a hit.

[kungfusamurai]

Most of the Lee trademarks (tracksuit, fights in a tower, etc.) were all available through magazines, books, etc. By the time I saw the Lee version (for lack of a better term) in theaters (I still own the newspaper review write up) I was already prepared for everything to come so most of the producers of these films prior to the release in 1978 knew it too. They were able to lure a lot of people in thinking they were actually going to get a glimpse of Lee in his final film.

Why did it take sooo long for them to get out the final footage? With all the bruceploitation flicks flooding the market since his death in '73, there was plenty of opportunity to make the film the way they did and import the surviving Bruce footage. Was it tied up in legal problems? By the time it came out, in '78, it seems like the Bruceploitation sub-genre was either on the way out or this film's release killed it. Either way, there weren't too may Bruce pics after '78 compared to before '78.

KFS

[The Dragon]

Why did it take sooo long for them to get out the final footage? Was it tied up in legal problems

Exactly. Linda Lee had to get attorneys to get Raymond Chow to hand over appropriate accountings of Bruce's films, which Chow was quite defiant. These litigations proceeded and finally culminated in 1975/76. She then ended up selling the rights of full ownership of Bruce's end of Concord, including Game of Death, to Chow shortly thereafter. Raymond was very uncooperative with Lee's Estate and dragged this affair as far as he could.(Possibly because of Triad involvement with GH bookeeping; supposedly, there were two sets of books):l. Warner Bros. was a saving grace because they were a big US Corporation, and Chow didn't/couldn't take them on. Linda had saved all of Bruce's correspondances, Bruce wrote everything down, and it proved to her benefit.

By the time it came out, in '78, it seems like the Bruceploitation sub-genre was either on the way out or this film's release killed it. Either way, there weren't too may Bruce pics after '78 compared to before '78.

Few may know this but several of those Bruceploitation films had The Estate's backing, and a few others were sued in court. When I say backing, I mean The Estate received profits. They were racking up on Bruce on both sides. :l

By the early eighties, it was on to publicizing Lee's Tao of JKD, and securing MCA marketing of his name and likeness for profit on books, posters, clothing, toys, conventions, games, etc.

CHA--CHING!!!

[kungfusamurai]

Thanks for all that information Dragon. It's hard to say if it's a good thing or a bad thing that Bruce Lee's legacy is such a cash cow. On the one hand, you want to respect his memory and all that, but then again, Bruce was driven to be successful. The irony is that he's probably been just as if not more successful after death. Plus, with him dead, there needs to be some way to provide for his family. I doubt he had a whole lot of life insurance, but who knows, maybe someone connected to him did and got a nice payoff when he died mysteriously due to misadventure, as opposed to intentional suicide or possible murder? Hmmm....

KFS